A Comparison of the relative efficiencies of cold circulation and acidified bioling water cleaning systems for milk parlour pipelines

Abstract

The relative eficiencies of acidified boiling water used twice per day (A2), acidified boiling water used once per day (A1) and cold circulation (C) cleaning as used on 24 Northern Ireland farms were compared over a nine month period divided into three cleaning periods each of three months. Overall, the A1 system gave inferior results to the A2 and C systems which gave similar results. These diflerences between the cleaning systems were the same in each of the three cleaning periods. When a comparison of cleaning periods was made, irrespective of cleaning systems, it was found that better plant hygiene occurred during the first period (January‐April) than during the other two periods.A periodic hot clean (approximately once per month) was found to be effective in reducing bacterial numbers when the C cleaning system was in operation. It was also found that a build‐up of bacterial numbers occurred on plants during the last two cleaning periods when the A1 and A2 cleaning systems were in operation.Finally, irrespective of the cleaning system employed, it was found that poor plant hygiene prevailed on many of the farms on several occasions.